When the President Became a Firefighter on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve of 1851 proved to be a devastating day for the Library of Congress, and the sitting U.S. President helped to save the Capitol building.

On the morning of Dec. 24, the captain of the Capitol Police discovered a fire in the Library of Congress, which was then housed in the Capitol building. The fire spread rapidly, destroying thousands of books and documents, and even some priceless paintings.

According to White House historians, President Millard Fillmore was enjoying the holidays with his family when he heard the calls of “Fire! Fire! The Library of Congress is on fire!” He rushed to join the eight fire wagons loaded with water barrels and hoses, pulled by draft horses, and he was joined by some cabinet members and members of Congress. The president also gave orders to a bucket brigade formed by Marines from the local navy yard. The bucket brigade worked until noon Christmas Day, with Fillmore at the head, “flames flickering near his thick head of snow white hair.”

At the time, the library contained about 55,000 volumes, including Thomas Jefferson’s complete library which Congress had purchased in 1815. An estimated 35,000 books were destroyed. Those saved were located in an adjoining room separated by a thick wall.

The library room was “a beautiful specimen of Corinthian architecture,” according to one newspaper description. Located in the Capitol on the same level as the houses of Congress, it was 92 feet by 34 feet, with an arched ceiling 36 feet high with three sky lights. On each side were alcoves supporting an upper gallery.

The cause of the fire was later found to be a faulty chimney, and when wood was burned in the furnaces below, sparks escaped through holes in the chimney.

But the Christmas Eve fire was not the first time the Library of Congress had been destroyed by fire. The library had been established in 1800 with an appropriation of $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.” By 1814, the collection, housed in the Capitol, had grown to 3,000 volumes. They burned along with many government buildings when the British invaded the Capitol city during the War of 1812.

Retired President Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his extensive personal library to replace the Congressional Library. In January 1815, Congress and President Madison agreed to purchase 6,487 volumes for nearly $24,000. About two-thirds of those books were among the ones lost in the 1851 fire.

The new, fireproof Library of Congress room built in 1853

Recognizing the significance and importance of protecting the collection after the second fire, the Capitol architect designed and built a cast-iron structure in 18 months. Called by the press the “largest iron room in the world,” it was encircled by galleries and filled the west central front of the Capitol.

Congress initially provided funding only to replace the books lost. Over time, however, more funds were added to expand the library. Copyright law required two copies of every book published in the U.S. to be housed in the Library of Congress, so the collection grew. By the 1890s, the need for a separate, more spacious, building became evident, and on Nov. 1, 1897, the library opened in its new home.

The Thomas Jefferson building housing part of the
Library of Congress today

Today, some 170 million items held by the library include books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints and drawings. The Library now occupies not only the 1897 building, named after Thomas Jefferson, but two additional buildings on Capitol Hill, named after Presidents John Adams and James Madison.

Additionally, the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, a state-of-the-art facility where the Library of Congress acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings.

The Library’s Director of Special Collections has said, “You can find answers to anything you’re curious about here. What is your question?”

Sources:

Fire ravages Library of Congress | December 24, 1851 | HISTORY

The True Story of the Fire That Destroyed the Library of Congress

What Sparked the 1851 Fire That Devastated the Library of Congress?

The White House Library: A Twice Told Tale - Our White House | Looking In, Looking Out

Library of Congress

The Other Fire at the Library of Congress

The Burning of the Library of Congress

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

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